Carbondale, Illinois: Energetic University Culture
This academically oriented Illinois town is a great place you’ve (maybe) never heard of.
October/November 2009
By Joe Hart
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Southern Illinois University students are attempting to provide the school with its own organically grown produce.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
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What do architect Buckminster Fuller, radical entertainer Dick Gregory and musician Shawn Colvin have in common? All three spent formative years in the intellectual, artistic and activist hothouse that is Carbondale, Ill.
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Located near the southwest tip of the state, Carbondale has a population of about 43,000. Half of them are permanent residents, and the other half are students at Southern Illinois University. This mix is in large part the soul of the town’s identity.
“It’s one of the smallest cities with a large university,” says Francis Murphy, general manager of the Neighborhood Co-op Grocery. “The university has a huge cultural impact on everything from music to the arts to the speakers who come to town. We get a diversity of experience that normally wouldn’t be found in a town this size.”
A few examples: The town has two daily and two alternative weekly newspapers, a volunteer-run community radio station, two independent record stores and a half-dozen independent bookstores. Carbondale also hosts the Big Muddy Film Festival, billed as one of the oldest student-run festivals in the country, which runs for two weeks every spring and features an impressive list of independent and experimental works. A thriving club scene boasts a variety of hometown acts as well as traveling shows.
The university has an equal impact on local government. The city’s mayor, Brad Cole, was elected to his first term at 31 years old, which at the time made him the youngest mayor in the country. And the town policies are decidedly progressive and green — where else can you find a city-run program to encourage homeowners to invest in a rain collection system to conserve water?
